The Bead Spot

My daughter, my niece and I put the pottery wheel my daughter bought back in November to use recently. It was fun, but not as easy as I thought it would be. Going into our afternoon of pottery making, I foolishly thought my daughter and niece would each be able to create their own cup. But I realized after the first 10 minutes of trying to shape the first project that we would have time for only one. Also, the instructions were not as clear as I think they could've been. It would've been nice if they had a diagram noting what each piece was called, and I just wasn't understanding based on the instructions when it would be OK to remove the cup from the encasement. So, our first effort was mostly a trial-and-error project. We didn't bother to smooth out rough edges because I just wanted to test how long it would take the clay to dry and whether it would be OK to wait until it was entirely dry before removing it from the encasement. In short, it's not pretty, bu...

Time management and crafts (Image by Gratisography/Ryan McGuire/ FreeRangeStock.com )  Do bad time management practices negatively affect your crafts hobby? It does mine. For instance, this week, I took a few days off work to burn some use-it-or-lose-it paid time off I've accrued at work. My plan for those days was to finally cross off a whole lot of tasks that have long been on my to-do list before I begin another crafts project. Here is the list of what I didn't get done: Clear clothes that don't fit out of my daughter's closet. Get rid of toys she hasn't played with in a long time. Gather up the clothes that don't fit me. Take all of that in to a resale shop. Finally finish organizing my crafts supplies. I did manage to get some important things done, and some not-so-important things, during my few days off. But, everything above that didn't get done makes me feel like my house is cluttered, and that makes it hard for me to tackle so...

My daughter had some spending money this past weekend, an early gift from her aunt and uncle. So the next time she and I went to our local Walmart Supercenter, I picked the groceries I needed, then she and I headed toward the toy section. But we didn't make it that far. As we came up on the crafts section, my daughter spotted an endcap full of these pottery wheels.  My daughter's new pottery wheel "Oh, Mommy! Can I get that?" she asked. I looked at the price, saw it was within the $20 she had, and told her that was fine. "But are you sure that's how you want to spend your money? Because that's going to take all of it," I told her. "Do you want to look at the toys first?" "I want this," she said. I must admit, I was pleased. I've had my eye on these pottery wheels for quite some time. Several years ago, I even toyed with taking a pottery class but decided against it because of the expense and the time it wo...

1st snowman attempt using Beader's Canvas My daughter liked the jack-o-lantern necklace I made for her so much that I've wanted to create another glow-in-the-dark necklace for her for winter, and what better project, I thought, than a snowman? On Sunday, I tried to map out a snowman's head on Beader's Canvas , and after having done so, I no longer think that it will make a good necklace. I think a full snowman, using the glow-in-the-dark pony beads I have, would be too big, but if I create only a snowman head, I'm not sure people will get that it's a snowman instead of just some guy with a top had and a very red nose. I might still try it, but I think that ultimately, the project will just be a wall hanging.

A previous order from Fusion Beads Where I live, bead shops are few and far between, so most of the time when I buy beads, I'm buying them from a website. We do have some major crafts retailers — Hobby Lobby and Michaels — which don't carry the types of beads I'm looking for, as well as a few individual bead sellers, but the closest is an hour away, which means going there takes planning and taking a day off my day job. Therefore, most of my stash comes from websites. My top 3 go-to places: Fire Mountain Gems , Shipwreck Beads and Fusion Beads , but I'm always on the lookout for a new place. Here are the three sites I'd like to try: Harlequin Beads This site caught my eye mainly because it has Czech Charlotte beads, which I've used in projects such as the round earrings my grandmother was seeking . I love how Charlottes shimmer, and I can't find them just anywhere. It's been long enough since I've bought Charlottes that I don't know...

Getting bead supplies organized I cannot tell you how many times lately that I've set aside, say, an hour to work on a project and then wound up spending the first 30 minutes or so trying to track down a tool, a particular bead or stringing material that I've misplaced. More often than not, I've given up and just made do without. I still don't know, for instance, where my best pair of flush cutters is. I've organized my entire stash of beading supplies before, but that was a long, long time ago, like before my 5-year-old daughter was born by a year or so. It's definitely time to go through it all again and separate the Delica beads from the Czechs, the big-eyed needles from the leather craft ones, separate all clasps from jump rings, gather all my books into a single location, and so on. I haven't been bead supply shopping in the last several years anywhere near as much as did a few years ago, and I've made several projects since my last order...

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love the colors of pumpkins, watching semi-scary movies, the coolness of autumn in Oklahoma, and just seeing what every trick-or-treater I know wears for the big night. Every year, I plan to get extra crafty for Halloween, telling myself I'm going to make a big pile of Halloween stuff for kids, then list it all on Etsy. Every year, I also get very surprised by how quickly my window to get anything done closes. This year, for instance, I managed to get one thing done. Just one: a glow-in-the-dark beaded pumpkin necklace I told my daughter she could have. I planned to also make a ghost and a witch, and I felt like I had plenty of time. But here we are just 19 days from Halloween, and I'm wondering whether it's worth the hassle to try to get anything done. I plan to try; maybe if I have three to five items ready to go this weekend, I'll go ahead and list them on Etsy this year. If not, at least I'll have a jump-start on Ha...